Hamas spox: ‘We are leading our people to death’… er, confrontation… yeah, that’s it

posted at 12:41 pm on July 14, 2014 by Noah Rothman

Zuhri became the focus of criticism when a clip of him advocating for civilians to act as human shields in order to protect Hamas militants and assets exploded on the internet. A MEMRI TV translation of Zuhri’s appearance on Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV showed him talking up the “character” of Palestinians who “defend their rights and their homes with their bare chests and their blood.”

“We in Hamas call upon our people to adopt this policy in order to protect the Palestinian homes,” Zuhri advocated.

“We aren’t leading our people today to destruction,” he added. “We are leading our people to death.”

Zuhri appeared to recognize the impropriety of his statement “I mean, to confrontation with this occupier,” he corrected himself.

That little slip sure puts Palestinian Liberation Organization legal advisor Diana Buttu, who recently said it was “racist” to suggest the Palestinian territories cultivate a “culture of death,” in a difficult position.

Zuhri’s assertion, that Hamas is leading the people of the Gaza strip to death, sure does seem to be an accurate one, however. Last Wednesday, the terrorist organization released a list of new demands which would lead to a cessation of hostilities – all of which are non-starters for both the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

This seems to be a shifting of the goalposts from earlier this month when Hamas merely demanded Israel end its attacks on targets in Gaza and reopen the blockaded Gaza-Egyptian border. Even those demands were already unacceptable for both Jerusalem and Cairo.

On Saturday, Zbigniew Brezinksi, Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor, sent out an ironic tweet criticizing the United States for “not using its influence” to hasten an end to the conflict in Gaza.

Letting the bloodletting between Israel and Gaza develop on its own means that the US is not using its influence intelligently.

It is ironic because America’s usual negotiating partner in these matters was the Egyptian government. The United States previously worked with both deposed presidents Hosni Mubarak and Mohamed Morsi to settle conflicts between the Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza.

While America’s relationships with both Egyptian leaders were often rocky, the U.S. still successfully used the influence it carved out during the Cold War when it wrested Cairo away from its alliance with the Soviet Union to isolate and contain Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. It was Brezinksi and Carter who cemented that relationship with the Egyptian military when they successfully negotiated the Camp David accords.

True, both Morsi and Mubarak’s relationship with Hamas was far better than the current Egyptian regime’s, but the United States bears some blame for the deterioration of the bilateral relationship with Egypt as well. The Obama administration’s handling of the 2011 – 2013 crisis in Egypt, in which they cut off some support for that country’s military after Morsi’s ouster in what the United States determined was a military coup. In that moment, the Obama White House undid one of the last of the Carter administration’s only real accomplishments and made maintaining Middle East peace that much more difficult.

The Associated Press reports on how the White House is scrambling to find a new partner with whom they can work in order to secure a ceasefire:

A senior Obama administration official said that policy hasn’t changed but that other players in the Mideast could act as intermediaries, as was the case when Egypt and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton worked to secure the November 2012 cease-fire. Egypt, Turkey or Qatar are all possibilities, said the official, who demanded anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters.

Surely, Brezinksi knows his tweet was a subtle condemnation of Obama’s approach to foreign affairs. In that tweet, Brezinksi highlighted how America’s regional “influence,” a force which he played a major role in crafting, has been so utterly depleted by the current administration.

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Zuhri became the focus of criticism when a clip of him advocating for civilians to act as human shields in order to protect Hamas militants and assets exploded on the internet. A MEMRI TV translation of Zuhri’s appearance on Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV showed him talking up the “character” of Palestinians who “defend their rights and their homes with their bare chests and their blood.”

“We in Hamas call upon our people to adopt this policy in order to protect the Palestinian homes,” Zuhri advocated.

On Saturday, Zbigniew Brezinksi, Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor, sent out an ironic tweet criticizing the United States for “not using its influence” to hasten an end to the conflict in Gaza.

You know what, Mika’s dad doesn’t need to affirm the fact he is an idiot. But what gets me is this call for the United States to intercede.

Israel is under a terrorist attack. Would we expect Israel or any other nation to have “used their influence” to prevent conflict in Afghanistan after the 9/11/01 atrocities?

The best thing for Israel is if the White House gang stays out of it. This happens every so often. Like any violent dictator Hamas has to show they still have it. Once they’ve built up their weapons sufficiently they do something provocative. Israel responds and attacks and it goes on until Hamas runs out of bullets and backs off until the next time.

We no longer have allies in the Middle East. Our former allies have witnessed Obama’s hostility to our former allies and know he can’t be trusted. Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood and their fellow travelers, whom Obama apparently wanted as allies, think he is a chump and use him like a baby butt-wipe.

We can rebuild our relationship with Israel after the dog-eating anti-Semite is gone. The rest is just a flaming dung heap.

Why would I want the U.S. to use its influence to bring about a cease fire? Every time in the past it meant Israel being forced to give up something for a short temporary “peace”.

The only thing the U.S. should say is we are not involved, except that we back Israel 100% in whatever they plan to do, and will cover for them in diplomatic organizations, like the UN, just like Russia and China always do for their allies.

Once again this is why I am not a fan of the U.S. always trying to stabilize things. Give war a chance…

The best thing for Israel is if the White House gang stays out of it. This happens every so often. Like any violent dictator Hamas has to show they still have it. Once they’ve built up their weapons sufficiently they do something provocative. Israel responds and attacks and it goes on until Hamas runs out of bullets and backs off until the next time.

crankyoldlady on July 14, 2014 at 12:59 PM

Even if he wants to get involved, Obama is too impotent to be relevant. It is in Israel’s best interest to pound Hamas into dust, as well as to ignore the girlish shrieks that will no doubt come from muzzie loving Obama.

As I have said in earlier threads on the subject, Obama’s weakness right now is a blessing for Israel. Obama would never have the stones to act unilaterally (unless his family’s favored faction, the muzzie bros were involved) and he’s destroyed his own credibility to the point that none of our allies will listen to him.

Besides, why should we get involved?
Other than the Palestinian body count being on the low side, the IDF seems to be doing just fine without our help….

dentarthurdent on July 14, 2014 at 1:07 PM

We shouldn’t Israel is under attack by a terrorist organization. If we are unwilling to get involved militarily, we have no right in being critical about what Israel is doing to protect her citizens from harm.

It’s just not smart to stick your hand in the middle of the fight when a couple pit bulls are going at each other.

dentarthurdent on July 14, 2014 at 1:10 PM

We have influence where and when we project strength. Since we cut and run in Vietnam, there has been little reason to respect American strength of arms, because we’ve ultimately cut and run short of victory in every operation since.

Basically, the last 45 years we’ve been living off of (and consuming) the last vestiges of respect we won in World War II, which was the last war we actually WON.

We shouldn’t Israel is under attack by a terrorist organization. If we are unwilling to get involved militarily, we have no right in being critical about what Israel is doing to protect her citizens from harm.

Happy Nomad on July 14, 2014 at 1:11 PM

My only critique of the IDF is that comment about the body count being a bit low in Gaza…..

..how the White House is scrambling to find a new partner with whom they can work in order to secure a ceasefire…

The United States had a partner with whom they could work in order to find peace in that region…It was Israel. Omuslim just doesn’t see it that way, so Israel needs to find their own methods of ensuring peace–destroy Hamas.

“We aren’t leading our people today to destruction,” he added. “We are leading our people to death.”

What he forgot to add is that his people are willing lemmings.

Hamas yearns for death…the Israelis should oblige them.

RonRon on July 14, 2014 at 1:10 PM

Far too rarely it’s not the leadership of Hamas that’s dying…. those gutless cowards encourage others to do the dying all in the name of propaganda and trying to raise funds on the body count.

But that’s SOP for these jihadi terrorist organizations….

Athos on July 14, 2014 at 1:18 PM

It is a fact that Palestinians parade their children through the streets of Gaza wearing child-sized suicide vests while carrying signs proclaiming death to Israel and all Jews. They also have these parades, sans suicide vests, here in the US – mostly in Kalifornia. The LSM refuses to cover these events but you can find photos and videos on the web if you look. The Palastininans are just like any other Islamo-fascist group and the more of them that die the happier I am. Kill them all and do it quickly.

HAMAS is the ‘armed wing’, or more correctly piratical wing, of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood… so leading Palestinians to death isn’t really all that much of a stretch there, given ethnic differences and all. Gaza was just a place to be to set up shop that wasn’t in Egypt but close to it and to show the supposed ‘strength’ of the MB by having Palestinians die for them. The spokesman was just caught telling the truth, always a no-no for that sort of thing.

A senior Obama administration official said that policy hasn’t changed but that other players in the Mideast could act as intermediaries, as was the case when Egypt and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton worked to secure the November 2012 cease-fire. Egypt, Turkey or Qatar are all possibilities, said the official, who demanded anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters.

Why should the United States be looking for other countries to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza? Why not let Israel do what it needs to do, then negotiate a cease-fire on Israel’s terms?

“And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it” – (Zech.12:3).